baby boom

baby boom,

a period in which the birthrate is significantly higher than in other periods, especially the post–World War II period in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States, the postwar baby boom was the largest demographic spike in the nation's history; more than 78 million Americans were born. Experts differ about the span of the U.S. baby boom, which the Census Bureau defines as 1946 to 1964; the number of births peaked in 1957. Some break the period into two sections: "Leading-edge Boomers" (1946–54) and "Generation Jones" (1955–65). Marriage and pregnancy were delayed during the 16 years that spanned the Great DepressionGreat Depression,in U.S. history, the severe economic crisis generally considered to have been precipitated by the U.S. stock-market crash of 1929. Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its.....Click the link for more information. and World War II. After the war, births went up precipitously as the average ages at which people got married and began having children both went down. The baby-boom years were also marked by an expanding economy, increased educational opportunities, and population shifts to the growing suburbs. The baby boom ended in the late 1960s and by the 1970s America's birthrate had declined to 1930s levels.

Baby boomers are the largest generation in U.S. history, and have had a profound effect on many of the country's political, economic, and cultural trends. Many boomers reached young adulthood during the 1960s and contributed to and were affected by the period's antiauthoritarian and alternative hallmarks, such as political and social activism and rock music. Boomers also are united by such factors as television (they were the first generation to grow up with the medium) and consumerism (they have tended to be voracious commercial consumers). Many baby boomers have struggled to achieve the standard of living enjoyed by their parents because the large size of their cohort has tended to diminish economic opportunity, but the generation as a whole is the richest in American history. In the 21st cent. aging baby boomers are expected to present a significant challenge to the U.S. healthcare industry, MedicareMedicare,national health insurance program in the United States for persons aged 65 and over and the disabled. It was established in 1965 with passage of the Social Security Amendments and is now run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services......Click the link for more information., and social securitysocial security,government program designed to provide for the basic economic security and welfare of individuals and their dependents. The programs classified under the term social security differ from one country to another, but all are the result of government legislation.....Click the link for more information..

If the party preferences of each generational group were to hold steady in the coming years as the Democratic-leaning baby boomers gradually replace the more Republican Silent and Greatest generations, the country as a whole would likely become more Democratic.

Most baby boomer students went to medical school after the expansionary movement of the early 1970s when the federal government "grew" the production of young physicians by almost 30 percent, up to a level of about 17,000 today.

Given that Baby Boomers have eluded themselves with more fibs, stretchers, whoppers and virulent deceptions than any generation in history, it is not surprising that the reckoning should be so powerfully humbling.

Our research found that employers are generally supportive of their employees working past age 65 and delaying retirement and, in fact, are much more so than Baby Boomer workers believe to be the case," said Collinson.

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